Joe Sestak: 'I want to serve again'

Former Rep. Joe Sestak wants to run again — for what, he’s not saying.

“I want to serve again, and want to do it right,” the former Democratic Pennsylvania congressman told The Delaware County Daily Times on Tuesday after he was asked whether he would run for governor. Sestak did not specify which, if any, office he would seek.

Text Size

Sestak, a former three-star U.S. Navy admiral, stunned politicos in 2010 when the then-congressman beat then-Sen. Arlen Specter in a Democratic Pennsylvania senatorial primary.

Specter, who passed away last October, had switched parties and was backed by the White House during the primary battle. Sestak would go on to lose to Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.).

Sestak, who endorsed Hillary Clinton during the 2008 Democratic presidential primary, is often mentioned as a potential gubernatorial candidate against Republican Gov. Tom Corbett, who is up for reelection in 2014. Whether Sestak would run for governor or Senate, he didn’t specify — but he seems to have his daughter’s approval.

“My daughter Alex thinks I am too involved in her homework and asks when I am going to get out there again,” he told the suburban-Philadelphia newspaper.

He’s not the only Democrat mulling a run. Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.) is another potential gubernatorial candidate, as well as a handful of other state-elected officials.